B&Mguy wrote:Ron, didn't Concord, NH have passenger service until 1967? If so, there would have been a three year overlap when the MBTA took over. I think the long distance trains were still run by the B&M though, so NH technically did not have MBTA service. Please correct me if I'm wrong.
Well, yeah, but you're getting kind of legalistic there! You are absolutely correct that the B&M ran intercity passenger service to Concord (as well as to Dover, NH, on the Portland Division) until 1967, and that it was not subsidized and therefore not connected with the MBTA. But you should be careful with references to the MBTA "taking over" in the 1960s. Initially, in the mid-1960s, the MBTA began providing cash subsidies to both the B&M and NH to cover some of the cost of their commuter operations. (NYC's B&A line wasn't included.) But it was hardly an MBTA takeover at that time... trains ran fully under railroad control, with railroad crews and equipment. It wasn't until about ten years later, in the mid/late 1970s time frame and following the B&M and Penn Central bankruptcies, that the MBTA began to purchase the lines, supply equipment, dictate schedules, and generally become more visible as the sponsor of the service. Initially they were just paying the railroads to not discontinue the trains.